Back in 2010, a photo of Ian McKellen in his Waiting for Godot get-up and apparently being mistaken for a homeless person as he sat on a bench outside a Melbourne theatre raised some eyebrows in the press.
McKellen was apparently sitting in his tramp costume taking a break when a passer-by gave him an Australian dollar.
Now, as he prepares to reprise Samuel Beckett’s famous absurdist play on Broadway, the same photo is causing a stir all over again on several news sites — with some seemingly unaware that the events in the photo occurred three years ago.
McKellen said at the time:
“During his dress rehearsal of Godot, I crouched by the stage door of the Comedy Theatre, getting some air, my bowler hat at my feet (and) seeing an unkempt old man down on his luck, a passer-by said, ‘Need some help, brother?’ and put a dollar in my hat.”
“The dollar coin is now lodged between two drawing pins on the board above my dressing room mirror. My lucky talisman.”
Waiting For Godot, co-starring Patrick Stewart, is currently previewing at Broadway’s Cort Theater and officially opens to audiences later this month.
